Orlando DUI
Defense Attorneys

Most people arrested for DUI have never been through the criminal justice system before, and the first thing that surprises them is how fast it moves. If you refused a breath test or tested at or above the legal limit, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles suspends your license administratively, independent of the criminal case and often before you have spoken to a lawyer. The criminal charge itself then proceeds separately, on its own schedule, in county court.

King Law defends DUI charges in Orlando, Orange County and throughout Central Florida, in both the administrative license proceeding and the criminal case that follows it.

The Two Florida DUI Statutes That Matter Most

Fla. Stat. § 316.193 defines the offence: driving or being in actual physical control of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, a chemical substance or a controlled substance to the extent normal faculties are impaired, or with a blood or breath alcohol level of 0.08 or higher. Notice that impairment alone is enough — the State does not need a breath or blood test result to convict if it can prove impairment by other evidence, including officer observations and field sobriety exercise performance.

Fla. Stat. § 322.2615 governs the separate administrative suspension. A driver who refuses testing, or who tests at 0.08 or above, faces license suspension that begins on the tenth day after arrest unless a hardship license or formal review is obtained first. This is a civil administrative action decided by DHSMV, not a court, and it has its own short deadline that has nothing to do with when the criminal case will be heard.

Penalties Increase Quickly

A first DUI conviction in Florida is typically a second-degree misdemeanor carrying up to six months in jail, a fine, probation, DUI school, community service and license revocation, with mandatory ignition interlock device installation if the breath alcohol level was 0.15 or higher or a minor was in the vehicle. A second conviction increases the potential jail exposure to up to nine months and carries a mandatory minimum term of interlock device use. A third conviction within ten years of a prior conviction is reclassified as a third-degree felony.

Aggravating facts change the calculus further. A DUI involving property damage or injury is charged more seriously under § 316.193(3), and a DUI involving serious bodily injury or death is prosecuted as a felony, in some circumstances as DUI manslaughter under § 316.193(3)(c). A BAC of 0.15 or above, or a minor passenger in the vehicle, enhances penalties even on a first offence.

The Ten-Day Window and the Hardship License

If you refused testing or tested over the limit, you generally have ten days from the date of arrest to request a formal or informal review hearing with DHSMV to challenge the administrative suspension, and the same short window is typically when a temporary hardship permit needs to be requested to keep driving for work, school or medical needs while the case is pending. Missing that window does not end the criminal case, but it does mean losing the chance to contest the suspension on the administrative side and potentially losing driving privileges outright in the interim.

Because this deadline runs on calendar days, not business days, and starts immediately upon arrest, it is one of the first things to address — often before the arraignment in the criminal case has even been scheduled.

Where DUI Cases Are Actually Won or Lost

DUI cases turn heavily on the details of the stop and the arrest, because the State’s evidence is built almost entirely from what the officer observed and recorded. The initial stop must be supported by reasonable suspicion or probable cause; a stop based on a pretextual or unsupported reason can lead to suppression of everything that followed. Field sobriety exercises must be administered and scored according to established protocols, and deviations — poor lighting, uneven surfaces, improper instructions, medical or physical conditions affecting balance — are common and significant.

Breath test results depend on properly calibrated and maintained equipment, an operator certified to run it, and compliance with the observation period and administrative rules governing the testing procedure. Blood draws implicate their own chain-of-custody and consent requirements. Dashboard and body camera footage, which frequently contradicts or complicates the narrative in the arrest report, is subject to standard retention schedules and needs to be preserved early.

Because impairment can be proven without a chemical test, officer testimony and video of the roadside encounter often become the central evidence in a refusal case — which cuts both ways depending on what the footage actually shows.